Copy Protection

This is a very quick page dedicated to tracking copy protection methods. I started this in infuriation with Macrovision protection. It makes 'fair use' of copyrighted material a pain in the neck. Fair use does not preclude copy protection, as companies are not compelled to make copying easy. I have a friend that wanted to buy 'Matrix' on DVD, has no player but only has access to VHS. He can't do this. Why buy VHS? DVD was a format geared for the future, so he just wanted to wait to buy a player, but buy the titles for the future.

The other thing that pissed me off was an article in Popular Science (October 1999, p59) which writes about a system to prevent CD copying by screwing with playback on CD-ROMs, because CD-ROMS are supposedly picker about errors, theoretically causing digital extraction to halt. The article states that this system screws with digital audio recievers that recieve the messed up digital signals. They don't say whether it screws with the analog signal, but I wouldn't put it past them as they are owned by Macrovision, a company that makes a copy protection product for video that slightly degrades the video, and on some sets, messes up the picture significantly.

Internet media formats like SDMI supposedly have 'watermarking' that also slightly degrades the content.

Now The DVD CA is going after those that have DeCSS available on the web, and even people that only link to it - but do not have the files on their server space - are getting sued for copyright infringement. Go to www.opendvd.org for more up-to-date information.

A Norwegian programmer was arrested for distributing the program, even though he supposedly complied with cease-and-desist orders well before hand.